SEO is dead (again), ugh

The whole "Google update and SEO is dead (again)" thing is getting exhausting.

For a while, the doomsday talk got to me. But in the end, like everything else, it’s just natural selection.

Study, make changes, wait. Study again, tweak more stuff, wait some more. And repeat.

And if at some point you run out of money or motivation to keep learning, tweaking, and waiting, well, that’s it. That’s how it goes.

The conversation among experts (and not-so-experts) focuses on how to adapt if you’re already playing the game.

But what I find more interesting (and worrying) is how this new paradigm impacts people who are trying to build something FROM SCRATCH.

Does knowing it was already hard to get traffic (and now it’s nearly impossible) discourage innovation?

Does it kill the drive to build products or services that don’t have a viral hook, knowing that AI Overviews are just going to feature whatever’s already popular, making it even harder for new brands to be seen?

Is the pie just going to be split up among the ones who are already at the table?

And what’s that going to mean for how fresh and high-quality the content is that search engines offer?

In my case, the CandyCV blog has honest, useful, high-quality content. It's three months old, but since Google doesn’t see me as "relevant", I don’t get any organic traffic unless it’s people specifically searching for my brand.

As a new brand, I’m expected to pay for ads or link-building or even expired domains. But that’s not the game I want to play.

I want to build authority the real way: by delivering value, not by spending money.

What is working really well for me is TikTok. It’s got its own search engine, and I’ve ranked a few videos that are steadily bringing in more and more traffic every day.

Honestly, I love this moment we’re in. I like the scrappy game. Giving myself tight money constraints and doing everything by hand, organically. Pushing things to the edge.

To me, the key is embracing these changes as opportunities. Being patient. Trusting yourself, the process, and the long game.

Now that building products is easier than ever, getting them out there is the real challenge.

I really hope Google (and social media algorithms too) eventually make space for new voices, new products, and new brands to get a shot without having to pay to play or spend years in the desert.

That’s the conversation I want to be part of.